the scent
by marythemoose
Summary: Remus Lupin is the only werewolf at hogwarts... right? (A/N I won't be updating this story for a while as my inspiration for this story has ebbed, however once it returns I will be busy as a bee updating till you're sick of me, love always ,mary xx)
1. remus lupin

"You should have seen her face prongs, you would have laughed so hard," Sirius black was recounting a prank he had played the lesson before to his best friends James potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. James was banging his fist on the table, and shaking with laughter peter was clapping and giggling appreciatively. Remus was chuckling quietly ,he was trying to laugh along with his friends but it was proving difficult.

It was the first week back from the holidays, The full moon was next week and he was starting to feel the effects he felt tired, frustrated and he hated to admit it really quite horny.

Sirius made it look so easy to just walk over to a girl ,run his hand through his hair ,wink and wiggle his eyebrows and they would instant start blushing and giggling. Remus however was not as blessed. He supposed he could be as successful as Sirius if he maybe got a good nights sleep and managed to pull of the same unabashed cockiness or maybe if he stopped brushing his hair like James, also less scarring wouldn't hurt. or maybe it was that next to sirius and james, he just wasn't that exceptional he didn't have sirius' stellar looks and awesome hair or james' quidditch skills and awesome hair. maybe if he improved his hair. he blew his sandy brown fringe out of his eyes .What was the point? even if he was better looking he'd still be a danger to the poor girl he thought sadly.

The smell of dinner interrupted his thoughts as it wafted over from the centre of the table where the baskets had just filled themselves with bread and the hall began filling up with students.

It was then that he smelt something, it was warm inviting unmistakeably female yet wild, earthy and seductive he found himself raising his nose to the air and inhaling deeply. he started looking wildly around for the source of the heavenly smell but he seemed to be lost in a fog of it. It was indescribable yet somehow so familiar, he could have sworn he had smelt it before somewhere in the forest, no in his house. Could it be? The smell that clung to his own robes before and after the full moon. No this was definitely a girl's scent and female werewolves were unbelievably rare. _Rare but possible _a small voice in his head said. No. He mentally squished the little voice he couldn't get his hopes up. _but a female werewolf here_ the little voice carried on regardless _would mean you were just as dangerous as each other ,she could be your girlfriend you could put your arm round her in front of the common room fire, lend her your jacket when you got cold, brush the hair away from her face if it fell in her eyes, hold her, kiss her, maybe even..._

"that's quite enough," he accidentally hissed out loud. he had allowed his thoughts to get carried away into this ridiculous paradise where he had a girlfriend ,where he wasn't a monster.

"You ok moony?" James asked snapping him out of his reverie .his friends were giving him strange looks.

"Yeah great," he lied quickly "Just wondering, can you smell that?" Remus asked trying desperately to sound casual.

"Yeah it smells like dinner," Sirius said stabbing a potato with his fork.

" No not the food padfoot, the other thing, can you seriously not smell it?" Sirius shook his head but began sniffing the air.

"Nope nothing here,"

"Oh come on it's everywhere it smells like...," he stopped, trying to find words "warm chocolatey flowers?" he offered lamely. His friends looked at each other and then snorted and dissolved into giggles.

"Your probably just imagining it, or some fifth years put on too much perfume," said padfoot his eyes found a pretty blond fifth year girl halfway down the table and he winked at her. She went pink and giggled giving him a little wave.

"You are so in the door with her," James grinned and pushed his glasses up his nose. For some reason this annoyed Remus even more.

"Can we just go up to bed now," he snapped. The other sighed and hauled themselves up from the table they new better than to argue with Remus a week away from the full moon.

The corridors were reasonably full for after supper. On his way out of the great hall and leaving the heady fog behind he found himself breathing normally again. He hung behind his friends as they were chatting about the fifth year girl from supper, he was deep in his thoughts desperately trying to place the smell somewhere. when it hit him again like a club to the face the smell he whipped around to find the source again but it was gone just as soon as it had arrived.

"Remus are you ok?" peter asked. Remus became aware that all of his friends were staring at him.

"It's that smell again, I'm not imagining it!" he told them with conviction

"Sure moony maybe just ease up on the crazy sauce at mealtimes," said James patting him on the back and grinning as Sirius skipped ahead singing

"LOONY LOOPY LUPIN LOONY LOOPY LUPIN"

Despite himself Remus laughed.

* * *

**I never read authors notes myself but if you are reading this. thank you :).**

**in other news I'm sorry if I made any punctuation errors as they are a common occurrence in my writing I can spell fine but my grammar is poo**

**tell me what you think xx**


	2. josie salt

Josie

Josie was looking down at her hands; she had got to supper early and was sitting and waiting for the baskets to fill with food. She was lost in her thought as per usual tracing the pearly looking scars on the back of her hand. Josie was a werewolf and as far as she knew the only one at Hogwarts.

She ran her hand through her wavy brown hair that just passed her shoulders and turned her amber eyes on the table the marauders had just entered the room and as per usual every female straightened up and threw back their hair or started laughing hysterically. This was mainly because of a certain Sirius black who was explaining how he had exploded the chalk during transfiguration the lesson before. He was gesticulating wildly and his friends were laughing raucously.

Sirius was not really her type but she had to admit he was bloody gorgeous with his silky black hair that seemed to look both ruffled and controlled at the same time, his stormy grey eyes which seemed to rake over every girl hungrily and made your knees go weak. His large rough hands slightly calloused from years of being a beater Josie could almost feel them running up and down her back now.

_Stop that at once! _She mentally cursed herself, why was she fantasising about Sirius bloody black when she knew full well she could never date anyone? _Oh right, full moon next week_. It was only Josie's second transformation and she was still getting used to the feelings she got before the full moon. The heightened emotions and senses and worst of all the burning desire for intimacy.

She glanced back at the marauders Sirius seemed to be coming to the end of his thrilling tale. she spotted Remus lupin trying and failing to look like he was enjoying the story. There were purple bags blossoming under his eyes and he kept digging his nails into the palms of his hands and then he puffed his fringe out of his eyes looking frustrated.

She giggled he looked so dejected it was almost comical. The smell of food wafted over suddenly from the middle of the table. she snapped out of her thoughts and speared some roast parsnips on the end of her fork.

It was then that she could smell something else mingling with supper. Something like new books and freshly mown grass, wild and woody yet somehow warm and inviting it was so male and she just wanted to sink into it. She tipped her head back slightly and breathed in through her mouth and nose at the same time as if trying to fill herself entirely with the smell. She looked around to see if other people were sniffing the air like weirdoes. Nope just her. She wanted to wrap herself up in a blanket of the scent and never leave. But at the same time she wanted to find whoever the scent was emanating from push him against a wall and _must your thoughts go this way every single time!_ She mentally scolded herself.

She sat there for a few moments breathing heavily trying to place the scent it was so heavenly and special yet somehow so familiar.

_This is too much_ she thought. Blinking away tears. since she had been bitten everything had changed her parents were so supportive of her yet there was only so much they could do. They couldn't be around her when she was 'the other Josie,' (the name she had given to the wolf) they couldn't hold her hand through the painful transformations where her skin stretched and stung and her bones snapped and realigned themselves, and as for holding down a steady job that didn't even bear thinking about. But the worst thing by far had to be the crippling loneliness; she had next to no friends if only she had thought to make some before she was bitten. They might not all have deserted her if she told them.

she was sort of friends with lily evans the pretty redheaded girl in her dorm but then again Lily was friends with everybody and she was already best friends with mary mcdonald ,marlene mckinnon, alice prewett and that Hestia girl. They were all the most pretty and talented witches in their year and they wouldn't want to hang around with a mopey werewolf with an internal monologue and a habit of laughing at her own jokes.

She remembered the other day in charms when she had made a truly spectacular joke while practicing _drying_ charm she had remarked that she thought flitwick had a pretty _dry _sense of humour and promptly dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. She was the only one who laughed. Apart from James potter and Sirius black but Josie was ninety-percent sure that they was laughing at her rather than with her. She tried but she couldn't resist a good pun.

The beautiful smell suddenly cleared snapping her out of her haze. She sniffed the air sharply to see if any trace of it remained. But she was disappointed.

She pulled herself up from the table deciding it was probably time for bed and she would need all the rest she could get in the coming week. On the way out of the hall she spotted the marauders up ahead Remus was hanging a few steps behind them. _Poor boy_ she thought _he looks dead on his feet, does he just stay up all night studying?. Heehee I suppose I can't really talk I always look shit around the full moon. _

When suddenly it hit her again the smell, it was so strong this time breathed in and began to follow her nose walking fast and breathing hard. Attempting to find the source of the scent she pushed past a few disgruntled looking hufflepuffs and had just elbowed past peter pettigrew and was carrying on down the corridor when the smell seemed to ebb away. She stopped right in front of the portrait hole and looked around. The smell was there but very faintly, no way she could track it. behind her she heard Sirius black start singing and decide it was best to get into the common room sharpish.


	3. moony and the other josie

Remus.

Remus was lying on his bed thinking about this mysterious scent that kept following him around. he had caught flashes of it walking through the corridors always rushing past him and disappearing just as quickly as it came, and he could barely stay in the Gryffindor common room anymore as it seemed to fill the whole room, charms and defense against the dark arts were especially difficult as the fog seemed to envelope him making it impossible to concentrate. _Why are you so wrapped up in this? _He thought. _You're being so ridiculous what even is it? A scent, a cloud, a delusion_ ..._oh god I'm going mad, cursed to forever smell things that aren't real_. He rolled over and stuffed his face in his pillow groaning, it was the full moon that night and he had a cracking headache.

"Hey moony stop with the moping, you're worse than James that time Evans poured punch on his head," said Sirius lounging on his bed. "You've done nothing but grumble and look all troubled for three days," a wicked grin spread across his face "is it about a girl?"

"No actually Sirius not all of our problems revolve around girls, you know very well I don't have girl problems," Remus snapped irritably

"Alright then what's keeping the great Remus lupin awake at night? Let me guess… charms homework?"

"Just because my problems aren't girl-centric doesn't mean that they're all about homework,"

"Fine don't tell me I'm only your bloody best friend aren't I, either way you'd best get down to the hospital wing pretty soon, it's the full moon tonight,"

"Really, d'you know I'd almost forgotten," Remus snapped sarcastically he was being unreasonable he knew but the headache and the raging hormones were proving too much.

"See you in a bit moony old pal," said Sirius patting him on the back as he walked out the door and ignoring his unneeded outburst.

Remus stomped out of his room bracing himself for the inevitable wave of scent in the common room but there was nothing he sniffed a few times but still, there was nothing, feeling slightly disheartened he headed out of the portrait hole and towards the hospital wing.

* * *

"Good evening Remus," Madam Pomfrey had greeted him the same way for seven years. Except today. She seemed slightly uncomfortable.

"Good evening poppy, is everything alright" the nurse shifted from one foot to the other.

"Oh no everything is fine, um it's just the head master has decided to… well, I'll just let you find out for yourself,"

* * *

"See you tomorrow morning and thank you very much," Remus called after her.

"Think nothing of it," she called without turning around.

Remus squeezed through the opening at the foot of the trunk and started down the passageway, when he reached the end of the passage, following his usual routine he pulled his shirt over his head and stepped out of his trousers he shivered _it's way too cold to be walking around the shrieking shack naked_ he thought darkly. Looking out of the window he saw that it was dark, a cloud was covering the moon. He had maybe a minute until the transformation started.

He closed his eyes and breathed in as a beautiful scent started to cloud his sense _NO! Not now, not here. _He whipped around spotted some Gryffindor robes lying on the floor a few feet away. He breathed in deeply again _upstairs _he thought and ran up the stairs two at a time. He threw the nearest door open and to his horror, there stood a girl completely starkers with her nose in the air breathing in deeply, she jumped back when she spotted him her amber eyes widened just as his brown ones did. They both dived simultaneously behind opposite ends of the decrepit sofa to cover their modesty.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE!?" she screamed "YOU HAVE TO GET OUT, NOW"

"WHAT AM I DOING HERE? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SHOULDN'T BE HERE" Remusroared panic liquefying his stomach "THIS ISN'T A JOKE," he continued not sure if she had got the message.

The girl turned her head to look out of the window as her entire body was bathed in moonlight. 'Oh shit,' he heard her mutter then suddenly she was changing. Her beautiful face was lengthening her jaws gnashing at thin air as her bones began snapping audibly and then reforming, she howled a horrible blood-curdling howl just as Remus' felt his skin stretching across his back and his nails turned into claws. His ribs snapped one by one and his face was morphing. It was a horrible experience and seemed to go on forever. At last it was over.

The two werewolves stood across from each other, one the colour of dark honey the other one brown one brown. They circled not taking their eyes from the other, when all at once they both lunged. The female sinking her teeth into his side and the male slashing at her arm. They rolled several feet before the male threw the female off she landed on her back a few feet away, she pushed herself up leant back on her haunches and pounced again, the male caught her by her already injured front leg and slammed her to the ground. She kicked out with her leg which connected with his shoulder and but he was not deterred slashing at her face with his claws which ripped open the flesh on her jaw and down her neck. She howled in pain and the male joined in.

The two moved away from each other once again circled the room never taking their eyes of the other and eventually settled on opposite sides of the room; as if a silent treaty had been drawn up they never looked away from the other for the whole. Even when a rat followed by a stag and a big black dog burst into the room. The brown male nodded too them whereas the amber female gave an almost bored flick of her tail. The animals looked at each other then back to the two surprisingly docile werewolves and settled down to watch the strange spectacle.

They left earlier then they would have normally but it seemed that Remus wouldn't need their help that night.

* * *

Two teenagers a girl and a boy bruised and bleeding lay on opposite sides of the room. The girl groaned and stretched out _damnit Josie, what did you do? _She thought to herself. She rolled over and spotted the boy sleeping on the other side of the room squeaked and rolled back to the other side. _Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod _flashed of the night had come back to her. Standing in the empty room naked when the mysterious scent that had plagued her for the past few days had washed over her again. She remembered panic and the sound of someone rushing up the stairs when in had burst a very distressed and very naked Remus Lupin. Oh_ bugger _she thought, _he knows. _She closed her eyes as more memories began to trickle through her mind; his features being twisted and morphed his legs lengthening and his ribs cracking loudly. _Remus freaking Lupin is a werewolf, OH MY GOD THIS EXPLAINS SOO MUCH right I need to leave before he wakes up. Slowly does it, now try and stand without making the floor_ *creak* _damn just ease up quickly and creep out, you left your robes by the foot of the stairs. OK. _

The boy stirred and turned over, his eyes fluttered open a tiny amount and he lifted his head for just long enough to register a pair of pale slender legs walking from the room before he groaned and his head hit the floor as the waves of sleep washed over him.


	4. friends

The sunlight seemed to poke Remus in the eyes as he woke up in the comfortable bed of the hospital wing.

"Finally," said peter as he pushed himself up on one elbow and rubbed his eyes.

"Whozzhappnin," he mumbled

"We could ask you the same question mate," said James "who was the lady friend?"

"Lady friend? What?" Remus asked confused

"Mrs moony? You know the yellow lady-wolf who you were sitting with last night,"

Memories flooded his brain. The shack, the scent, _the girl_. He lay back down on his bed and exhaled loudly. _She's a werewolf, a female werewolf _he thought.

"You know that scent that I've been talking about for the past few days,"

"I think you may have mentioned it," remarked Sirius wryly.

"I know who it is, and why only I can smell it," he paused "it's a girl and she's another werewolf here in Hogwarts and I, um, 'bumped into her' as it were last night in the shrieking shack,"

Peter's eyes were wide and James' mouth fell open

"Is she hot?" Sirius butted in

"Yes, but that's beside the point," Remus rolled his eyes _typical Sirius._

"Not a patch on dear old Evans I'll bet," James grinned

"Will both of you shut up," he snapped "I just need to talk to her, I'm pretty sure the scent was her but I just want to ask her if she could smell anything you know- different,"

"She probably could," peter spoke up "I read about it in _confronting the faceless_ there's at least half a chapter on werewolves, it said that 'before the full moon werewolves (both male and female) give off a powerful pheromone that can only be detected by members of the same species," the others looked blank "it's a mating thing," Remus went very red. James eyebrows shot up.

"How d'you remember all that wormy?"

Peter looked slightly offended "hey I read stuff," he countered pouting.

"Jeez moony that's pretty heavy," Sirius looked slightly worried. "Can we meet her any time soon?"

"I think you'll have to come to me," a voice rang out from the other side of the hospital wing. The boys whipped around. In the corner on one of the white beds lay a girl she had wavy brown hair that reached past her shoulders a heart shaped face, full pink lips and large open amber eyes, the same colour as the werewolf from the shack last night.

The boys helped Remus to his feet even though his muscles protested and he walked slowly to the bed next to her. She had white bandages wrapped around her arm from her elbow to her wrist and gauze reaching from her jaw to her collarbone. She looked at him and smiled softly. "Hello again,"

Remus chuckled sadly "hello, I don't believe we've been formally introduced,"

"I know you, everyone knows you," she smiled crookedly Remus noticed then the slight gap between her front two teeth although they were perfectly straight and white otherwise. "You're Remus lupin, your Sirius black and your peter Pettigrew," the boys all nodded at her looking slightly awed. "I didn't mean to be weird or creepy or anything but everyone knows your names, also you're in the same class as me for charms and defence" she looked a bit sheepish now. "I'm Josie salt,"

"Nice to meet you Josie," Remus looked down at his feet "I'm sorry about your arm and your neck,"

"It's fine," she waved the apology away "I know what it's like,"

A few seconds passed in an uncomfortable silence Remus rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly "how long have you been a… you know,"

"Different species?" she supplied "I was bitten over the holidays, my parents didn't want me returning here but Dumbledore changed their minds,"

"I was five," he stated sadly. They looked into each others eyes for a few seconds, amber staring into chocolate brown

"It's shit," she sighed

"I know it's shit," they smiled and laughed quietly and the tension lifted slightly.

"So anyway, this may be a very weird question," Remus paused unsure how to finish the sentence "but in the past you days, you haven't, erm, smelt anything different," he watched as her eyes widened.

"Yeah I know what you mean, thought I was going round the twist, I can't smell it right now though, can you?" Remus shook his head "yeah the scent, it smells like, oh you know, books and the woods and campfires," she said eagerly.

"Oh- er I could smell chocolate and flowers and um warm-ness," they looked at each other for a moment before grinning like fools

"It was you wasn't it, the smell," she chuckled "you were the scent that was following me around,"

"No it was definitely your smell following me around," he said with a raised eyebrow. They snorted and laughed as the ridiculousness of the situation dawned on them, two gawky teenagers trapped in the bodies of monsters desperately trying to make sense of it all but to no avail.

"I know who you are," Sirius burst out interrupting the happy moment. His eyes wide he pointed at Josie excitedly "James it's the pun- girl!" James frowned for a second then he grinned as recognition crossed his face.

"Holy shit, it's the pun girl, how did we miss this?!"

Remus and peter's faces were question marks "Josie is in our class for defence and charms and she's always making puns and laughing at them," James explained

Josie went beet red "well I like them and there's nothing wrong with a good pun, I think their funny and that's all that matters," she said rather defensively.

"nonono, not in a bad way it's just Sirius here is a bit of a pun machine and from time to time we've joked that you could give him a run for his money well that is if you stopped laughing at your own puns, he still reckons he's the champ" James grinned with a twinkle in his eye as Sirius nodded proudly.

Josie put on a mock stern face, turned to Sirius and said sharply "I'll have you know that I take pun- making very Sirius-ly," she promptly dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. Sirius barked a laugh and lent forward with his hand outstretched, she slapped it with her own.

"It's a very Sirius business, am I right," he snorted at Josie howled with laughter and clutched her sides. Her laughter was infectious and soon James peter and Remus were all laughing along with the two pun enthusiasts.

"Why have we only just made friends with you now?" said James when the laughter died down. Josie raised an eyebrow

"Are we friends?" she asked. Silence.

Remus spoke up first "um hopefully, I mean you don't have to hang around with us if you don't want to I'm sure your other friends…"

"I don't have any other friends" Josie cut across him. Remus blinked at her and then slowly shifted from the bed to the seat next to hers, he took her hand in his and squeezed it.

"Do you want some?" he asked hopefully. Josie's face broke into a giant goofy grin.

"I-I would love to be friends with you," she bit her lip, and she squeezed his hand back before yanking Remus into a hug burying her face in his shoulder Remus smiled into her hair as her all too familiar scent engulfed him. They both felt the other one inhale deeply they broke away laughing.

"It's still there," Josie giggled, Remus nodded chuckling. Madam pomfrey chose this moment to usher the other marauders out and demand that Remus get back to his bed.

Josie pulled up her duvet around her shoulders and grinned into her pillow. She had friends.


	5. a social thing

Josie

Josie woke the next morning with a strange feeling in her stomach, she ran through possible reasons in her head _is it my birthday no that's already happened ummm am I visiting a friend today, or is a friend visiting me DUMMY you don't have friends, oh crap that's what it is .I MADE FRIENDS! _Josie soared internally as the events of the previous day returned to her, she had made friends. Now all she had to do was keep them. _Should I stop with the puns? Or maybe I should brush my hair or straighten it. STOP STOP STOP. They were the ones who chose to make friends with me if they suddenly decide they don't like me then they can just stick that straight up their hairy-_

"Good morning Josie," Remus lupin interrupted her angry thoughts. He was standing at the end of the white hospital wing beds smiling kindly. "Poppy's let us go, your uniform should be in your bedside cupboard," Josie blinked like a deer in headlights "are you ok?"

"Yeah- yes I'm great, fine and dandy I'll just change,"

"See you in a sec" he hopped to the other side of the curtain.

Josie jumped out of her bed keen to start her first day at Hogwarts with friends. Once changed she pulled back the curtain to find all four marauders waiting for her. At the sight of them Josie seemed to glow with happiness

"Onwards to breakfast I think," James started out of the door with the four others trailing behind him.

"What's your favourite colour Josie," peter asked suddenly earning himself some strange looks "think about it we know your deepest darkest secret and you know one of ours but we don't know your favourite colour or food," Josie decided then that she liked peter.

"It's blue like the ravenclaw blue, what about you guys?"

"Red,"

"Red,"

"Red,"

"Blue," Josie raised an eyebrow at Remus. He shrugged his shoulders "the hat wanted to put me in ravenclaw,"

The conversation continued until they reached the great hall and sat down.

"What's your favourite food," Sirius asked.

"Bacon," Josie answered instantly "there is nothing in life that can't be improved with bacon, except maybe bacon, the only way to improve bacon is to create more bacon," Josie said nodding her head wisely.

Sirius' eyes glittered and he barked a laugh and clutched a hand to his chest "a girl after my own heart, I have to agree with you Jose, bacon is king of all foods,"

Josie began filling her plate with bacon-y goodness before smiling wickedly.

"Hey Sirius, don't go bacon my heart," she giggled. Sirius guffawed and high-fived her. The other guys groaned.

"And the puns begin," Remus put his head in both hands.

"Bacon your pardon guys," Sirius chuckled.

"Do they usually have any sort of _beef_ with puns?" Josie continued.

"As long as I _meat_ my usual standards," he glanced sideways at his friends who looked thoroughly unamused. "Shall we continue, I mean these puns are of _rare _quality,"

Josie stroked an imaginary beard before deciding, "no, I don't want to get in anyone's grill and besides it can wait until fry-day,"

Remus failed to hold back a snort.

"Have you quite finished," he asked leaning forwards slightly, Josie could suddenly smell it again, his amazing all encompassing scent like the bonfires next to her house back at home and the scent of freshly mown grass mingling with something deeper and more seductive. She leaned forward towards him trying to hide the fact she was breathing deeply, by the look of it Remus was having the same issue his chocolate brown eyes had glazed over and his chest was rising and falling rapidly.

"OI, will you stop that," James looked uncomfortable as they jumped away from each other looking guilty and sheepish. Josie felt her cheeks burning and out of the corner of her eye she saw that Remus had flushed pink and was poking a boiled egg awkwardly. He noticed her looking and pulled a mock creepy face flaring his nostrils and sniffing the air. She giggled nervously and shovelled some bacon into her mouth.

"What was that all about?" asked Sirius looking from Josie to Remus, with a smirk on his face.

"Nothing," they said at the same time.

"So definitely something," he said.

"Shut up and eat your breakfast Sirius," Josie said gesturing at the half eaten bacon sandwich in front of him. "It's the most im-pork-ant meal of the day,"

* * *

Josie stumbled through the portrait hole and made her way over to the fire to find her four new friends sitting there Sirius looking over Remus' shoulder at his charms essay and Remus pretending not to notice. She sat down next to James.

"Evening Josie," he greeted her "so any chance you could enlighten us about you and Remus little moment this morning we've been trying to get it out of him all day but he's being ever so stubborn," Remus head snapped up and he was giving James the stinkeye.

"Um, I thought I heard peter explaining it in the hospital wing?"

"Oh yeah, it's that scent thing phellemones or something,"

"Pheromones and yes," Josie prayed her cheeks weren't turning pink. _Just as long as he doesn't ask-_

"So why exactly does that happen?" _dammit, ok we can deal with this just don't give him a straight answer and hope he doesn't see through it._

"It's basically to let other werewolves know where you are,"

"Why would they need know that?" _no flies on this one._

"Just - you know - it's a social sort of thing," she met Remus' eye and they laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean," James asked bemused. Remus and Josie laughed even more. "Hey, I'm asking you a question," he poked Josie's side and she squealed and jumped away from him, he grinned "are you ticklish," he asked. Her eyes widened and she shook her head unconvincingly.

"No,"

"Too late, I have a weapon," he pounced on her and grabbed her sides tickling her mercilessly.

"STOP, STOP I'LL PEE," Josie shrieked

"Never tell me all of your wolfy secrets," James said with a fake evil laugh. When suddenly he was blasted back onto the sofa by an invisible force and Josie could breathe once again.

"Potter!" they looked up to see lily Evans was standing a few feet away with her wand out long red hair falling around her shoulder and her green eyes flashing "leave the poor girl alone, can't you see she's not interested," James leaned back on the sofa and put his hands behind his head.

"I can understand if you're jealous my darling, but there's really no need to be so angry, we're actually friends," he punctuated with a smirk.

"Don't make me laugh, people like Josie don't waste their time hanging around with delusional tosspots such as yourselves," she scoffed James visibly winced at that one. Josie found her voice.

"Actually we are friends, James, Sirius, peter and Remus met me in the hospital wing yesterday and … they found out I had no friends so they volunteered. Their actually very nice," she said firmly she didn't want to offend lily but she didn't like the way she had spoken to James. Lily expression was appropriate to having been clubbed over the head.

"Oh- um- ok, that's fine, I'll um… see you later then," she walked to the girls staircase looking confused. Josie glanced back at them, they were all smiling

"Thanks for that," James grinned

"Any time,"

"Don't think I've forgotten about this social thing you and Remus have,"

Josie snorted, Remus looked over from the other sofa and winked. James didn't miss a beat.

"What was that about, you both know about this social thing don't you and you're not sharing, that's just mean,"

"Why don't you ask peter, he seems to be clued up on all of this," James rounded on peter.

"Tell me everything," peter jumped back but began to recite

"In the week leading up to the full moon werewolves secrete a pheromone only detectable by werewolves of the opposite sex, the scent gets stronger the closer to the full moon, this is the werewolves way of attracting potential mates or breeding partners. Because of this in the week leading up to the full moon werewolves often have an increased libido or sexual appetite," he finished grinning apologetically at Remus and Josie. Remus had gone very pink and Josie had her head in her hands.

Sirius mouth had fallen open "wormy, how bloody long have you been keeping that from us? Do you have any idea how much we could have annoyed moony with this information?"

Peter smiled and shrugged "he payed me off with chocolate"

James chuckled evilly "so moony gets all hot and bothered around the full moon, no wonder your so snappy, does that go for the girls too?" he turned to Josie.

"Yes actually it does," she said darkly, the boy's eyes widened.

"But girls don't get, you know… randy," Sirius looked confused

"Some of us do," Josie said sounding offended.

"Do you?" he asked baldly

"Around the full moon," Josie mumbled "not all the time,"

"It's been bugging me, if you're a girl werewolf do you still get periods, you know like, do you have two times of the month" Sirius seemed unable to stop himself. The other guys pulled faces. Josie had to laugh.

"It's an ugly week when they hit at the same time," she said. Sirius seemed to be satisfied with this while the other marauders looked at him in disgust. He shrugged at them.

"The more you know,"

"On that note I think I'm going to turn in," Josie got up to leave "see you boys tomorrow."

"G'night jose," echoed from around the fire. She walked away to the girl's stairs when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Remus.

"I just wanted to apologize for them, they were being quite rude, especially Sirius," he looked at his feet.

"It's fine, I'd rather they asked me and got the truth than were left to formulate their own theories," Remus chuckled

"Well, goodnight Josie," his scent began to tease her again and she found herself leaning forwards.

"Goodnight Remus," his scent was filling her lungs now, becoming more an more irresistible , remus' eyes had darkened and he was breathing deeply and leaning forwards slightly. josie stood on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek. suddenly realised what she had done she jumped backwards. Remus seemed to snap out of his trance as well as his hand flew to his cheek where her lips had been.

"Sorry, I just… I forgot… I mean… sorry, goodnight" the scent was making it difficult to concentrate. Remus seemed to have the same problem.

"It's fine, just yeah… goodnight" she turned away and walked up the stairs to bed.


	6. desensitization

It had been a full week since Josie had accidently kissed her friend on the cheek and a repeat of the incident was proving more and more difficult to avoid for both of them. They were fine talking to each other a few feet apart but sitting next to each other was extremely difficult as it would only be a matter of minutes before the scent of the other would make it nearly impossible to concentrate.

For example sitting in the common room one evening Remus had been so overcome that he had made a sudden grab for Josie's arm. Josie had whipped around with a look on her face that would have made Sirius blush. Instantly realising what had happened the two had jumped apart as if electrocuted and much throat clearing and scrambling to collect their things had ensued.

Remus cringed as he relived the moment in his mind as he walked into the common room on a Sunday afternoon the other three marauders had gone to hogsmeade and he had stayed in school alone, or so he thought. He walked over to his favourite armchair by the fireplace to find Josie sitting in it and gazing into the flames.

"Hey Josie," he walked over to the sofa opposite and slumped into it.

"Hey Remus," she smiled, but she seemed preoccupied she seemed to struggle with herself for a few seconds before blurting out "um, Remus this might be a bit awkward but one of us has to talk about it eventually," Remus looked wary. "You know the whole scent issue,"

Remus smiled "ah yes, about that,"

"I'm not trying to be weird or anything but it's really distracting,"

Remus chuckled quietly "yes it is rather isn't it… and in a week or two's time it's going to get even worse,"

"This is the problem we face," she smiled "um so I was thinking about solutions for it,"

"Oh?" he said leaning back in the sofa and closing his eyes.

"We embrace it,"

"What?" Remus' eyes snapped open and he looked so adorably confused that Josie swallowed a laugh.

"We just go with it," she bit her lip to stop herself from giggling. Remus leant forward.

"In what way?" he asked warily. Josie threw back her head and laughed.

"Not like that Remus, what kind of girl do you think I am,"

Remus laughed with her and grinned crookedly "I'm not thinking, I'm hoping,"

"Cheeky," Josie said her cheeks turning slightly pink "I was actually suggesting that we sort of desensitize ourselves to it, if we get used to it, it might not be such a problem" she fidgeted obviously nervous.

"How?"

"Like this," she moved over from the armchair and sat next to him on the sofa. She leaned into his side and put her head on his shoulder. Remus thought his heart was going to burst out of his chest it was beating so hard, he wanted to put his arm around her and he did. They sat there for a few seconds Josie with her head on his shoulder Remus with his arm around hers and braced themselves.

Then it hit, the scent of the each other. It was so rich and seductive yet so familiar and welcoming and fresh. They seemed to sink into each other it seemed as though they fit together perfectly they felt so calm and comfortable it was almost frightening. Josie tucked her feet underneath herself as a sigh escaped her lips _why didn't we do this earlier_ she thought as Remus squeezed her shoulder gently and she revelled in the feeling of it. He wasn't breathing heavily like normal there was no need, her scent was completely surrounding him and he felt as if he had all the time in the world. Her hair was tickling his cheek and he turned his face into the side of her head and placed a friendly kiss on her temple. Josie chuckled quietly.

"Sorry, couldn't help it" he whispered into her hair.

"Don't be sorry, I think that makes us even" she breathed smiling. And the two sank even further into the sofa.

* * *

Sirius James and peter were approaching the portrait hole.

"So do you think leaving Remus and Josie alone today will have awoken their burgeoning sexual desire?" Sirius asked during a break in conversation.

James gave him a raised eyebrow "moony, seriously? He's way to shy to put a move on her,"

Sirius shrugged "well if he doesn't hurry up I might put a move on her myself, she's not half bad," peter and James looked at him in outrage "joking," he clarified raising his hands "she's a friend and the only girl who can make a decent pun definitely want to stay friends," he reassured them hurriedly.

"Either way, Remus can't stay a lone wolf forever," peter smirked.

"Nice one wormy," Sirius slapped him on the back as they climbed through the portrait hole. They continued towards the boy's staircase. James however was rooted to the spot staring mouth open at a sofa by the fireplace.

"Alright prongs? What's with the… Merlin's balls," Sirius trailed off.

On the sofa were Josie and Remus. She was practically sitting on his lap; her head was turned into the crook of his neck. Remus' arm was around her shoulders and he was leaning his head against the top of hers and they were both fast asleep.

"What do we do?" peter squeaked. Looking at his friends. They all looked equally shocked. Sirius and James exchanged serious looks.

James began "we sit opposite them, wait for them to wake up, and then…" their faces split into identical evil grins.

"Never let them forget it," Sirius finished. All three of them chuckled darkly. Removed their scarves and gloves and positioned themselves across from the sleeping duo.

_One hour later_

"How long are they going to bloody sleep for?" Sirius hissed looking extremely bored. "I vote we wake them up,"

"Me too." James responded

"Me three," said peter.

Sirius suddenly clapped and the pair on the sofa stirred.

"Oi lovebirds, sorry to brake up the moment," James called. Josie opened one eye sleepily she took in all three of the marauders her eyed widened and she hurriedly tried to move off Remus but he groggily pulled her back to him. The three surrounding boys found this extremely funny.

"Having fun Jose?" Sirius asked with a smirk.

"No need to sound so jealous Padfoot," she snapped.

"Ooh she's feisty," he sang. "Aha the beast has awoken," as Remus sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Care to give us an insight into what we interrupted moony,"

"Desensitization," he replied grinning at Josie who grinned back.

"Whaa" James looked from Josie to Remus both of whom started laughing.

"It definitely worked though," Josie remarked to Remus who nodded and smiled.

"Much easier to handle," he smiled and Josie smiled back, clearly pleased with the results.

"Guuuyyss," whined Sirius "why do you keep doing this? Would it kill you to explain fully,"

"Doesn't need much explaining," Remus said as Josie leant her head on his shoulder again. He felt Josie inhale deeply and a smile crossed his lips.


End file.
